Umbra

Full Name: Kole Ross, Erebus
Nickname(s): NA
Codename: Umbra
Alias(es): Dharc Ness
Age: 15
Classification: Meta Human, Altered Bat
Affiliation: Neutral Good, Chaotic Evil



Hair Color: Dark Brown
Eye Color: Dark Brown
Height: 5’8"
Weight: 120 lbs.

Other Traits:
Erebus:




Powers:

Shadows: Kole's power revolves around his shadow and manifests itself in two ways:

1. Manipulation
Kole can turn his shadow solid and manipulate it to form a weapon to aid him in combat. Currently, he can turn it into a bō staff for blunt force and a pair of kama if the situation demands a sharper approach.In addition to these weapons, Kole can form a shield over his right arm that can withstand the force of anything weaker than a .50 caliber round fired from a sniper rifle. Anything stronger will cause the shield to turn back into his normal shadow, and the attack will go through. He can only form one of these items at a time, and it takes about a second to change forms.

2. Shadow Travel
Kole and Erebus can melt into Kole's shadow and travel around as a two foot diameter shadow along the ground. While he can move as he would normally, he can also travel along any inanimate substance covered in a shadow (i.e, the side of a building that is not exposed to the sun). While in this form, he can still be hurt by attacking his shadow, and attacking him in this form will also cause him and Erebus to return to normal.

Possession:
Kole's mind is linked to Erebus. When Kole is incredibly discouraged, near death/defeat, or allows it, Erebus takes control of his body and will attack the first person he sees. When in this state, Kole's eyes turn completely black, and his fighting style changes dramatically to match the body's new controller. First, Erebus does not react to pain as Kole would. He will keep fighting unless he literally cannot due to the physical state of Kole's body (i.e, a paralyzed leg or shattered bone). Second, the weapons formed when Erebus is in control differ from those that Kole forms. Erebus can form a bladed gauntlet around his right hand instead of the bō staff, and a pair of daggers instead of the kama. This reflects the third change: Erebus is much more direct than Kole. Whereas Kole prefers to stay at a middle distance with the staff and come in close with the kama only when necessary, Erebus will get in close and be as lethal as he can. Possession ends either when Erebus is competely defeated or when Kole manages to gain control back (which usually only happens if someone he believes to be innocent is going to be hurt by Erebus).

Linked minds: A very limited form of telepathy, Kole and Erebus can talk to each other through their thoughts. Not that Kole wants to, just that Erebus has a tendency to constantly force his thoughts into Kole's head.

Skills:

Martial Arts: Kole has studied both bōjutsu and kama fighting for two years. While he isn't a master, he can certainly hold his own in a fight.

Agility: In order to make up for his lack of muscle, Kole has trained up his agility so that he can put more speed behind his attacks and dodges, making him slightly faster than your average human.

Weaknesses:

Light: While normal lights such as the sun or light bulbs are harmless, elemental light/light magic will rip through Kole's shadow no matter what form it is, forcing him to fight without it for the remainder of the battle.

Human: While his shield may be able to protect him from some attacks, Kole is still human. Anything that kills a normal person kills him.

Erebus: Kole's mind is linked to Erebus. If the bat is harmed or killed, Kole is going to feel it, which could create enough of a hesitation for an enemy to get a hit in on him.

Equipment:

Candle: Kole carries an electric candle with him in case he gets in a fight at night with no light sources to create shadows.



Personality:

Kole is a very quiet kid and does his best to avoid contact with other people unless they are in need of help or they are committing a crime. Once he gets to know a person and becomes their friend, he will do less to avoid them, however he will still talk rather quietly. He tends to take his time when making decisions instead of acting on a whim.

Erebus, on the other hand, is a very cruel and outspoken bat. He is always looking for someone to hurt and will usually fight the first person he sees. He will pick on Kole constantly, trying to lower his courage enough to take over.

Strengths:

Intelligent: Kole is pretty smart for his age, particularly in the areas of math and science. On average, his intelligence is about equal to that of a collage freshman.

Cautious: Kole will not rush head first into a battle or act on a whim. Instead, he will think through his actions and try to come up with plans that would be more successful than what seems best at a first glance.

Interests/Habits:
Reading, sleeping, practicing with his weapons
Fighting



Family Members: Kara Ross (Mother), John Ross (Father)
Place of Origin: Washington State
Current City: Jump
History:

Kole grew up in a small city in the western part of Washington state. He was just as quiet in his younger years as he is now, and most of the kids picked on him for it. While he never interacted with others in school, he payed attention in all of his classes, absorbing everything the teachers had to say, and even then doing some extra research on his own to get ahead. This lifestyle continued on for him for a few years with relatively little change, except for when he started to pick up bō and kama fighting at a dojo close to his home. However, things do not always stay the same forever, and in Kole's case one change came, it kept coming.

The first major change happened when he was just over 13 years old. One day at school, the normal teasing went farther than normal, escalating into a one-sided beating. As he was getting pummeled, curled up and closed his eyes, at which point the punches and kicks appeared to have stopped. When he opened his eyes, he noticed not only that he seemed to be looking from inside the ground, but that he couldn't see any part of his own body. This shock was enough to knock him out of his current state, causing him to rise out of his own shadow. All of the students that had been near him ran away in fear, while Kole ran to his home, refusing to tell his parents why he was home early. His parents later received a letter that Kole had been expelled from the school for traumatizing a group of students. Instead of trying to find a new school, his parents decided to home school him. With the extra time he had, Kole worked on replicating and then controlling the strange phenomenon that had occurred, eventually leading him to be able to exercise a small amount of control over his shadow.

Right after the Vanishing, a group in scientist in Jump were trying to come up with a new defender to replace the heroes that had disappeared. They believed that by manipulating the genes of animals, they could produce a superior species that would be just as strong as the missing heroes. Their first experiment was a genetically modified bat, codenamed Erebus. While the gene manipulation worked, the scientists found that the bat required a bond with a metahuman in order to use its powers. After some research, they found out about Kole's mishap and decided that he would be the best subject for their tests. A rag, a bottle of chloroform, and an unplanned cross-country road trip later, Kole was locked up in the testing facility with a collar around his neck that restricted his powers and a weird looking bat hovering near him.

For five painful months for both the scientists and Kole, nothing seemed to cause a bond to be formed between the two test subjects. Finally, one scientist had the idea that a shared traumatic event might cause a bond to be formed. The scientists hooked both Kole and Erebus up to an electric torture device and turned it on, causing electricity to course through their bodies. As Kole lost consciousness, he heard a small, cold voice in his head.

Time for me to have my revenge.

When Kole regained consciousness, he found himself standing over the dead bodies of all of the scientists with the bat flapping next to him, its thoughts coursing into his head. He rushed out of the testing facility, attempting to get away from the bat and the mess behind him. As he walked through the streets, a thrown away newspaper caught his eye. "Heroes Return to Jump!" the headline proclaimed. While Erebus had caught up to him and was continuing to project horrible thoughts into his mind, Kole decided to atone for the accident that had occurred by joining these heroes in protecting the city.

Completed

Claimed. I will review this character. Expect a reply soon.

-Dar

A beautiful application.

I only have 1 question:

What happens if a bright light appears while he is traveling in 2d shadow form? Does he just come out of that state?

If it was an attack like the one described in his weaknesses, then it would both damage him and knock him out of the form. If it was just a bright light, like from a spotlight of something, it depends on where he is. On flat ground, it would just expel any shadows around him and make it obvious where he was. If he was climbing something through the shadow, he would fall in shadow form and hit the ground, knocking him out of the form and probably causing quite a bit of pain

bump